Muncie women held for neglect, auto theft

Two Muncie women were arrested Thursday after they were found, asleep, in a stolen van, with two children in the vehicle.

Miranda Jo Lear and Paige Elizabeth Wormer, both 19 and of 1451 W. 14th St., were preliminarily charged with auto theft and neglect of a dependent.

According to an affidavit, a Muncie woman early Thursday reported her van had been stolen after Lear and Wormer borrowed it — ostensibly for 30 minutes — and failed to return.

The vehicle was found shortly before 7 a.m. parked in the 1400 block of West 14th Street. Lear and Wormer were asleep inside the vehicle with two children who were in car seats. One of the youngsters was not buckled in, an officer reported.

He wrote that it took "several attempts to wake up Lear and Wormer."

They were being held in the Delaware County jail on Friday under $5,000 bonds.

Lear was charged Aug. 1 with battery resulting in bodily injury in Muncie City Court.

She and Wormer also each face conversion charges pending in that court.